A Kiwi's Experience of Multiple Surgeries in One Trip to India
Editor's Note:
This article has been prepared by the IndiCure Editorial Team using firsthand patient interviews and our team's experience coordinating Nicola Bai's medical journey from New Zealand to India for vision correction, cosmetic surgery, and dental treatment.
When Nicola Bai, a warm and vibrant resident of New Zealand, decided to deal with her vision, her face and her teeth on one trip, she became part of a New Zealand patient group organized by Jackie, CEO of Bums, Tums & Gums. As one of the group members, Nicola, who goes by Nikki, was looking for treatment that was safe, comprehensive, and affordable. Through IndiCure Health Tours, she found a plan that covered all three. One patient's experience does not predict anyone else's, but it does show what careful coordination can make possible. Her experience also showed how planning multiple surgeries in one trip to India can save both time and money, though it also means one longer recovery rather than several shorter ones.
Nicola's Leap of Faith
For many international patients to India, the biggest challenge is not the surgery itself. It is the uncertainty of seeking medical care so far from home. Nikki admits she had plenty of doubts before deciding to travel from New Zealand to India. Healthcare is a deeply personal decision, and putting your trust in an unfamiliar medical system takes real courage.
What helped Nikki feel confident was the professionalism and kindness she experienced from the very beginning. As soon as she arrived, her fears started to fade. She found a healthcare system that was not only advanced but also incredibly thorough and attentive. The surgeons and medical team listened to her concerns with genuine care, earning her trust and making her feel safe and well looked after.
Traveling alongside other New Zealand patients made the experience even more reassuring. With Jackie coordinating the group's journey and offering support throughout the trip, Nikki had the comfort of familiar faces and shared experiences from the moment she left New Zealand until she returned home.
How She Got Her Sight Back
For years, Nikki struggled with vision problems that affected almost every part of her daily life. She needed a lens exchange procedure, which is very similar to cataract surgery, to replace her natural lenses with advanced trifocal lenses.
Living with blurred vision can make even simple everyday tasks frustrating. Getting this treatment in New Zealand often means long waiting times and significant costs. By choosing to travel to India, Nikki was able to avoid those challenges. After a thorough evaluation, the eye specialists performed a trifocal lens exchange. Her vision improved within days, and she was delighted with it. As Nikki happily says:
"I can actually see, which is fantastic!"
Helping Her Look as Young as She Felt
True transformation is about feeling as good on the outside as you do on the inside. Nikki also wanted to soften the natural signs of aging on the lower half of her face. Under the expert care of Dr. Shraddha, Nicola chose to undergo a specialized Deep Plane Mini Facelift.
Cosmetic surgery is about much more than technical skill. It also requires an understanding of each patient's goals and expectations. Dr. Shraddha spent time listening to Nikki, explaining the procedure, and and agreeing an approach aimed at a natural, balanced result. You can see before and after photographs of facial procedures in our gallery, bearing in mind that results differ from one person to the next. Even during the first few days of recovery, when some swelling is completely normal, Nikki felt reassured and well cared for. Her care was planned to keep her as comfortable as possible, with pain relief managed by the team through the early recovery.
Her Smile Deserved Attention Too
Many people assume it is difficult to fit dental treatment around major surgeries, but taking care of your smile is an important part of your overall health and confidence.
Nikki's experience with the dental team showed just how well coordinated medical travel can be. During the same week she arrived in India, she had a complete dental consultation, diagnostic scans, and received a detailed treatment plan and quotation on her very first day.
Instead of waiting weeks for appointments, everything moved quickly and smoothly. It allowed her to take care of multiple health concerns in one trip, so that each of her three concerns was assessed in the same week. For patients considering multiple surgeries in one trip to India, this kind of coordinated planning makes the entire experience far more convenient.
What Nicola Took Home
For Nikki, one of the biggest benefits of her journey was combining her lens exchange, facelift, and dental care into one well-planned trip. Instead of making multiple journeys from New Zealand, she completed everything during a single visit. For international patients considering multiple surgeries in one trip to India, this approach offers greater convenience, a single recovery period, and significant cost savings.
Even after factoring in flights, accommodation, and premium medical care, Nikki spent only a fraction of what she would have paid in New Zealand. More importantly, she returned home with clearer vision, renewed confidence, and peace of mind.
With Jackie's guidance and support, along with the personalized care coordinated by IndiCure Health Tours, what once felt like an overwhelming decision became a life-changing experience. Nikki's story is one person's experience, not a template. Combining procedures shortens the travel but lengthens the single recovery, and each procedure carries its own risks. Lens exchange can be complicated by infection, raised eye pressure, retinal problems, and glare or haloes with multifocal lenses. A facelift carries risks of bleeding, infection, altered sensation, scarring and nerve injury. A treated tooth can re-infect or fracture and may need further work later. Whether several procedures can safely be done on one trip is a decision for the treating surgeons after they have assessed you, taking your age, general health and anaesthetic risk into account. If you would like your records put in front of the relevant specialists, get in touch with our team.
Frequently asked questions
Can you have more than one procedure on a single trip to India?
Sometimes, but it is not a given. Whether an eye procedure, facial surgery and dental treatment can be fitted into one trip depends on which procedures they are, how long each needs under anaesthetic, your general health, and how the recovery from one affects the next. That decision belongs to the treating surgeons and the anaesthetist, after they have seen you and your records. What a combined trip saves is the travelling. What it does not save is recovery, because you are healing from everything at once rather than one thing at a time.
Is a trifocal lens exchange the same as cataract surgery?
The operation is the same one. The natural lens is removed and an artificial lens is put in its place. The difference is the reason for doing it. Cataract surgery replaces a lens that has clouded over. A lens exchange may be done while the lens is still reasonably clear, to correct vision, and the implant chosen is a trifocal lens intended to give distance, intermediate and near focus. Trifocal lenses can also cause glare and haloes around lights, particularly at night, and not everyone adapts to them. Your ophthalmologist should explain which lens type suits your eyes and what the trade-offs are.
How long will I need to stay in India?
That is set by your surgeons, not by the flight schedule. Each procedure has its own review points, and when several are combined it is the longest of them that governs the trip. Do not book a fixed return flight until your treating surgeons have confirmed you are fit to travel, and leave some room in case a review shows you need longer.
What is a deep plane mini facelift?
It is a facelift technique that lifts the deeper layer of tissue beneath the skin rather than pulling on the skin itself, over a smaller area than a full facelift, usually the lower face and jawline. Like any facelift it carries risks, including bleeding, infection, altered sensation, scarring, and injury to the facial nerve. Whether it is the right operation for you, or whether something more or less extensive would suit you better, is a judgement your surgeon should make after examining you.
What happens if one of the planned procedures has to be postponed?
It does happen, and it is worth asking about before you travel. A pre-operative test may come back abnormal, one procedure may need to settle before the next can go ahead, or a surgeon may decide on the day that doing everything at once is too much. Ask who makes that call, what it does to your dates, and what it does to your costs, so that you are not working it out under pressure in Mumbai.
Medical Disclaimer: The patient story shared above reflects one individual's personal experience and is provided for informational purposes only. Every patient's condition, treatment plan, and recovery are unique, and results may vary. All medical, dental, and surgical procedures carry inherent risks. This content is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making any treatment decisions.
